


Not a Big Deal

by nikkiRA



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Fluff, M/M, anyway this is disgusting and you've been warned, for kymadrift, like disgusting amounts, pjo secret santa 2k16, published in 2k17 but finished in 2k16!!!!, which is better than last year
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-01
Updated: 2017-01-01
Packaged: 2018-09-14 00:57:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9149755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nikkiRA/pseuds/nikkiRA
Summary: Jason has morning breath.Nico is finding this very difficult to deal with. Heroes didn’t get morning breath.





	

**Author's Note:**

> anyway! this is for the pjo secret santa for [kymadrift](http://kymadrift.tumblr.com/)! i hope you like it man
> 
> also, yes, i know i have two fics to update.........they are coming

Jason has morning breath.

Jason Grace, son of Jupiter. Jason Grace, who defeated Krios. Jason Grace, who brought down Gaia.

Jason Grace, demigod hero.

Nico is finding this very difficult to deal with. Heroes didn’t get morning breath.

“Does Piper… you know. Does Piper have, like… morning breath?”

Annabeth drops her sword and stares at him. “Excuse me?”

“Does Piper have… morning breath?”

It is a testament to Annabeth Chase that instead of laughing at him, or asking him why the fuck he needs to know that, she rests the point of her sword in the dirt and thinks about it.

“Not really,” she eventually says. “I think that might just be her parentage, though.”

Fuck. That’s true. Aphrodite would never let her children have morning breath. “Did Percy?”

Annabeth considers this. “I don’t think so. He drooled, but I don’t think he ever had morning breath.” She gives him a severe look. “It’s not a big deal, Nico. You don’t have to be embarrassed.”

“What? No, no, it’s not _me._ I don’t – it’s _Jason.”_ He blushes as he says this. It’s still difficult to discuss something like this with other people, especially since it’s still relatively new. But he trusts Annabeth. He always had. Even when he had that horrible crush on Percy, he liked Annabeth. He wanted to hate her, for having what Nico never could, but he couldn’t.

Annabeth, who had been keeping her features smooth, probably to try and avoid embarrassing Nico, forms a perfect ‘o’ with her mouth. “Wait, Jason? Jason has _morning breath?”_

Nico snaps at her in excitement. “Yes, see, I’m not the only one who thinks that’s weird!”

“Well, I mean… logically it could happen to anybody, right? Even Jason.”

“Yeah, but…” He doesn’t know how to put into words the fact that Jason Grace having such horrible morning breath is _wrong._ Because it was _Jason._

“You could talk to Piper?” Annabeth suggests. Nico cringes.

“I don’t want to ask her about her ex-boyfriend.”

Annabeth, because she is Annabeth, does not point out that he had asked her about Percy, because Annabeth knows that there is a big difference when the ex-boyfriend in question is currently sleeping with you. Annabeth, being Annabeth, just says, “Do you want me to?”

Nico shakes his head. “No, it’s okay. I guess I’ll just… deal.”

Annabeth picks the sword back up to continue their training. “Never would have pegged Jason as having morning breath.”

 _How do you think I feel,_ is what he wants to say, but instead he just lunges at her again, eager to forget about this whole mess.

* * *

“I have a question. A totally hypothetical question that in no way shape or form reflects upon real life events.”

“Okay,” Reyna says. “You know my dogs can tell you’re lying over Iris Message too.”

“That’s not fair, we agreed no use of the lie detector dogs during serious conversations.”

“You called me during their dinner!”

“Metal dogs don’t need to eat, Reyna.”

Reyna smiles, and Nico can’t help but smile back. He missed Reyna. It was easy to forget how easy it was to talk to her.

“Fine. What’s your totally hypothetical question that has nothing to do with your life?”

“What would you do if your… significant… other… person… had really bad… breath. In the mornings, specifically.”

Reyna was a lot like Annabeth, so she didn’t laugh at his utterly ridiculous situation. “So, this hypothetical significant other person, he wouldn’t happen to be a son of Jupiter, would he? Blond? Knows how to fly?”

“Maybe. Hypothetically.”

“You want to know what to do about the fact that your boyfriend has bad morning breath.”

Nico still couldn’t stop blushing every time someone used the word _boyfriend_ to describe them, something that caused Jason so much delight that he called Nico his boyfriend whenever it was physically possible.

“Yeah. I guess.”

Reyna, gods bless her, seems to seriously consider this. “You’re not going to like the answer.”

“Why? Is the answer secretly use mouth spray on him when he’s sleeping?”

“The answer is _communication.”_

Nico considers this. “What about the mouth spray as like, a solid plan B?”

“You’re going to have to talk to him.”

“I am not discussing Jason’s horrible morning breath with him! That’s… rude.”

“So what, you’re going to just suffer in silence?”

“It’s what I’m best at.”

Reyna makes a frustrated noise. “Nico. Jason has faced a lot of shit in his life. Juno stole his memories, for gods’ sakes. I’m pretty sure he can handle a minor discussion about morning breath.”

Nico pushes his palms into his eyes. “This is ridiculous.”

“You know it’s the only option.”

“No I don’t.”

He can faintly hear a growl coming through the message. He glares at Reyna. “Tell your dogs to bite me.”

“Probably not the best thing to say to dogs.” Nico huffs. “He’s not going to be offended, Nico. Everyone has weird shit they can’t control. Jason told me you accidentally summoned a skeleton during your sleep once.”

Nico gapes at her. “Once! That was once!”

“I’m just saying. It’s not a big deal. It could be worse.”

“This was not a helpful conversation,” Nico says petulantly. Reyna smiles.

“Yes it was. Just because it wasn’t what you wanted to hear doesn’t mean it wasn’t useful.”

Nico makes a grunting noise that vaguely means _you’re right._ Reyna knows him well enough by now to understand this.

“Talk to your boyfriend, Nico.”

“I’ll think about it. But I’m getting mouth spray just in case.”

Reyna lets out a huff of laughter.

“I’ll come over to Camp Jupiter soon,” he says. Reyna smiles.

“See you soon. Good luck.”

The Iris Message closes, leaving Nico looking at a fountain, not feeling any better about his options.

* * *

“Can I talk to you?”

Piper looks appropriately confused, since her and Nico hadn’t really talked much to begin with, and now that he was dating her ex-boyfriend he had been even more distant. Both Piper and Jason had told him repeatedly that it was fine, but it still felt pretty awkward, even though Piper and Annabeth had been dating for a while, now.

Still, if he’s going to listen to Reyna, he has to know that he isn’t overreacting. This thing – this whatever it was, with Jason, is the best thing that had happened to him probably since he yanked Hazel out of the Underworld (albeit for very, very different reasons), and he’s never done anything like this before. He doesn’t know what to do or how to go about this. He’s utterly terrified of fucking this up. And what if he’s just overreacting? What if Jason’s morning breath isn’t even bad, and Nico just doesn’t know what it’s like to wake up next to someone else? What if he brings it up and Jason gets upset?

“Of course,” Piper says, look of confusion quickly replaced by a comforting smile. She opens the door wider, letting him in, and gestures at a couch in the living room. Piper shared her apartment with Leo and Calpyso, and what with godly parents, Leo’s ability to take scrap and make something valuable, and all the crystals they had taken from Calypso’s island, it was easy to get a nice place.

A little heavy on the plant life, but nice.

“So. What’s up?”

Nico takes a deep breath. “Okay, um, this might be kind of… strange, and inappropriate, but I wanted to ask, uh… when you and Jason were, you know –”

“Dating.”

“Yeah. That. Did he ever have…” _Fuck, Nico, you’ve faced worse than this._ “Did he have bad morning breath?”

And Piper _bursts out laughing._ “Oh gods, Nico, it was horrible. I hadn’t even thought of that. I should have _warned_ you. It’s so bad.”

Nico feels relief spread through him. “So I’m not overreacting?”

Piper shakes her head, still grinning. “Not at all. And it’s worse because it’s so unexpected, you know? Like who would have ever thought that Jason Grace would have such awful morning breath.”

Nico can’t help but smile. It was relieving, talking to Piper about this. It was relieving talking to Piper, period. It was hard not to feel reassured talking to Piper. Piper was an easy person to talk to, an easy person to get along with.

“So, what did you do about it? Did you ever tell him?”

Piper shakes his head. “Jason and I were still pretty young, and we hadn’t really moved to that stage of a relationship where we spent many nights together, so I didn’t have to deal with it that much. Part of our problem was that we were too afraid of being less than perfect that we weren’t honest with each other. But you should tell him. You guys should be honest with each other. Or you could just sneak mouth spray into his mouth when he’s sleeping.”

“Yeah, that was my first idea, but Reyna shot that down.”

“She’s a spoilsport,” Piper laughs, and Nico gives her a tentative smile. “I am truly happy for you, Nico. You don’t have to find this awkward, or anything.”

“Yeah. Okay.”

She walks him to the door, but he turns back before he leaves. “Thank you, Piper. Honestly.”

“Anytime,” she says, and he knows she means it.

* * *

He’s late getting to Jason’s apartment that night, because Percy had made a passing comment that he could beat Nico in a sword fight and Nico was having _none of that._ Jason is just getting ready for bed when he gets there, finishing up brushing his teeth, and Nico has to bite his lip to stop from asking Jason to brush a little harder.

Jason mumbles something around the toothbrush in his mouth. Nico just stares at him in confusion, so Jason spits the toothpaste out and then repeats, “Where were you all day?”

“Around,” Nico asks, not entirely willing to explain that he had been asking people for advice about how to deal with Jason’s horrible morning breath. “Then Percy said he could beat me in a fight and I had to prove him wrong.”

Jason laughs. “Did you?”

“Tie. We fought for so long Annabeth declared it a draw and dragged him away by his ear.”

Jason laughs and leans forward to kiss him. Nico pulls away. “You taste like toothpaste.”

“That’s probably the toothpaste. Are you staying tonight?”

A silly question, since Nico has practically moved in, but Jason always asks it anyway. Maybe he thinks he still needs to give Nico a way out.

He doesn’t.

“Yeah. Course.”

Jason kisses him again, something Nico still hasn’t quite gotten used to. It took him a long time to believe that Jason was serious when he said he wanted this, and even now each kiss takes him a little by surprise. It’s something that for a long time he hadn’t known he wanted, and when he realized he did want it, it’s something he assumed he would never get. But now here he is, pressed up against the bathroom sink, Jason kissing him soundly, and this is his life, now.

Laying in bed that night, Nico considers his life. He considers the fact that four years ago he had been worried about the world literally ending, and now he is most concerned about his boyfriend’s morning breath. Hazel had always told him he wouldn’t always feel like an outcast, but he quite honestly hadn’t believed her. But Jason Grace is literally draped all over him right now, sleeping soundly.

Nico lays in bed for an hour, running over what his friends had said. He thinks most about what Piper had said, about worrying too much about being perfect, and that getting in the way of being honest. That’s not what he wants to happen.

So he wakes Jason up.

“Jason. _Jason.”_

 _“_ Hnng.”

“I need to talk to you.”

“Morning.”

“No, Jason, I need to tell you now, please?”

With a sigh Jason sits up a little bit and rubs at his eyes. “Okay, what is it?”

“You have really awful morning breath,” Nico says, all in one breath, words pushed together in an attempt to get them out as quick as possible. Jason blinks sleepily at him.

“Pardon?”

“You have bad morning breath,” he says, and it sounds more defeated now. “Like. Really bad.”

“Oh,” Jason says. “Sorry. I’ll get mouth spray, or something. Is that it?”

Nico stares at him. “I mean – well, yeah, but what do you mean, is that it? Aren’t you upset?”

“Why would I be upset?” Jason sounds genuinely confused.

“I don’t know,” Nico says. He’s starting to get angry, which is his go-to emotion when he’s beginning to feel foolish. “I just figured you’d be upset.”

Jason gives him a look that suggests that he’s trying very hard not laugh. “Why would I be upset? How long have you been worrying about this?”

“I… a bit.”

Jason can’t hold back his smile anymore. It spreads across his face, and he kisses Nico, utterly delighted. “It’s fine, Nico. I mean, it’s not like I accidentally summoned a skeleton in my sleep once.”

“When are you going to stop holding that against me?” Nico groans. Jason laughs.

“I’ll keep breath mints on the side table,” he says. “Although, if we’re talking about bad habits, you do kick in your sleep. Like, a lot.”

“Sorry,” Nico says. “Is that why you sleep with your leg over me?”

“It doesn’t help.”

“Sorry,” Nico says again. Jason grins at him.

“It’s honestly not a big deal, Nico.”

He’s been told that so much that he’s starting to think he should believe it. Jason kisses him again, and the next morning when they wake up, Jason breathes directly into Nico’s face and then laughs nonstop until Nico kicks him in the shin.

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr @officialjesperfahey


End file.
